Tag Archives: Pop Culture

Iconic new Lambretta chair

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Iconic Design LI-150-chairThis is a must have for the modern Lambrettista equipping the world coolest office… or home. I’ve seen something similar based upon *cough “another scooter” …but it didn’t have half the cachet of these iconic pieces.

Although you might want to simply display these chairs as a piece of art,  you’ll be glad to know they do work as fully functioning chairs.

Each chair is hand built and can be fully customised to your requirements… the model from an LI Series 1 to a GP/DL… the colour, either traditional Lambretta colours or custom colours, and the chrome badges… even the colour of the leather and how it’s stitched. You can even add your own company branding.

They are the brainchild of Jim Piester, founder of Johannesburg (South Africa) based Iconic Design. Jim, who is behind the whole idea, is a Lambretta rider himself (his is the candy orange GP you can glimpse behind the chair, or better in this post), and has been since the age of 16. His background in manufacturing engineering, including a 9 year stint at Rolls Royce and Bentley, have paid off in his attention to detail in the finishing of the final chair.

iRN9MVCOIZ9rYeYs2SKY_rB0Bua4aV86Rqp9ihIMkVk LVs8YSuu7Sly8YY91ou8twyrbh4Xkj4Obwvw9yn0_1g l-1gOhkrNQAvXR021xD2AEMSuaqdmZo_z_5YqU6ABTo Iconic Design LI-150-chair

Jim has other products already in the pipeline, including a Lambretta inspired sofa, armchair and bar stools. There is also a Series One version, including a working headlight… how cool is THAT?

The pricing seems remarkably reasonable too…

£951 +postage for a GP chair (DL/GP or electronic)

£1,035 + postage for a Series Two chair (Li or TV)

£1,100 + postage for a Series One with working headlight (Li or TV)

£1,079 + postage for a Series Three chair (SX, Special and TV)

Compare what you’d pay for the V*spa version… (Google it, I’m not linking to it) and you’ll see how favourably these compare pricewise. Designwise, there’s NO comparison.

Update: Here’s a rather lovely GP200 Electronic version Jim’s currently working on…gp200_12 electronic_1

For further details check out the Iconic Design website here.

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The $200,000 Lambretta

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Screen Shot 2013-11-27 at 16.56.57Well, $209,000 actually. But when you’re spending that much, the $9k in pocket change. Anyway, it’s (another) “Jimmy” replica (from Quadrophenia). That’s right. You read it correctly… it’s not even the ORIGINAL scooter from the film… that one (this one) sold for a mere £36,ooo back in June. But, in case I’m sounding a little unenthusiastic about it, there was an excellent reason this scoot fetched so much… it was for a good cause… the (RED)  Charity… in an auction curated by Apple’s head of design Sir Jonatan Ive. And it is signed by Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend. Ok, so it’s a true “pop icon”, I can see the appeal. And you could buy  half a dozen absolutely top notch Lammies for the price of this one. Make that a dozen. But that’s not the point is it

If yore interested in the actual scooters that were in the film, there’s is an excellent site, VCB160 that tracks the history of the two main scooters in Quadrophenia; Jimmy’s Lambretta and Sting’s “GS” Vespa (which is actually a Vespa Rally, made to look like a GS).

via ScooterFile

Quadrophenia LI150 fetches £36,000

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ImageThe film Quadrophenia was a life changing movie for me, and many others. I can’t believe many people reading this blog would not have seen it, so I won’t bang on about it.

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One of the iconic scooters in the film was Jimmy’s LI150 Lambretta… customised in full mod style (the other of course, being the Ace Face’s Vespa GS). 

After filming finished, the ‘Jimmy Bike’ was sold to scooter dealers Rafferty Newman and put on display in the window of their shop in Portsmouth. It was later sold and used on the road, before being left to rot in the garden of a quiet suburb. In 1995, it was rescued and restored to it’s original glory. And, although it’s not my cup of tea, it epitomises many people’s idea of the classic mod Lambretta.

So much so, it has become a pop cultural icon in it’s own right. And, as the headline revealed, it sold recently at auction, at Bonhams for an eye-watering £36k.